In my memory I would think that the 80s would be more likely. I think they were designed by Roy Allison who was a designer at Acoustic Research [AR] previously and they resembled some of the AR speakers in certain respects. This is off the top of my head, I'll look further when I get a chance. |
I put a system together for my ex & 2 sons back in the early 80's using a pair of Allison One's, SAE receiver, Tandberg cassette player & a Phase Linear turntable.
If I remember correctly the speakers cost me $700 back then.
I think you are correct in thinking that your speakers are older. |
If I recall the Allison one was reissued around 2000. The original I think was from the 70's & 80's time line |
I remember the Allison Ones from the mid 70s. So unless they are a reissue they are certainly 'vintage.'
Pull any driver and there should be a date stamped on the magnet. |
Mid 70's. The other salesman at the audio store I worked in bought a pair in '76 and pushed them with his Yamaha 2020 receiver/ |
I owned a pair back in 1978,they were made to be placed against wall,they were $800 new and they needed lots of power to get cooking,and yes they sounded very close to AR which was known as the east coast sound Advent,AR,ADS,etc.They did fill the room with real nice sound.
Yogiboy |
I have the original owner's manual, you can have it if you'd like. |
Yep I considerded buying them in 1976 but decided to buy Heresys . |
Thanks all for your help. I'm afraid I may have overpaid for them, but after I get the woofers redone at Miller Sound, who knows - I may really like them and decide to keep versus resell - they do look very nice. Thanks again. |
74'or 75'to the mid 80's I beleive. |
So may I ask, how much did you pay?
and yes, they do need to be in the corners of the room, and they do need some power. I always liked them. |
I'd have to disagree with Chashas 1, you put the ones in a corner and the definiton goes down especially in the bass. Louder is not better in this case IMO. If you like tubby, ill-defined bass, put them close, or worse, in the corners. I had a pair from 1976 to 1989 and taking them outside was a real ear opener for me. They never sounded better than that. After doing that the first time, I put them on the long wall vs. the short wall, away from the corners. I believe those angled faces need room from reflections. Much better clarity and openess. I sold them to a buddy who still uses them that way on a long wall now 34 years since I bought them. Pretty good longevity--and he wasn't interested in buying the ones I had for sale about 2008. He was the guy who got me going on the high end a little, but definitely on record care, plus he has THE best collection of rock records I've ever seen--should write a book on it. By the way, if you want to increase the clarity and airiness, look into the newer Morel tweeters to replace the originals. I think that would help make that classic much better. It is no Bose 901 if you do that--nor was it originally. That's a good thing! |
The model three was made for corner placement,the model one was not! |
the original allison one has a walnut veneer finish and went out of production in the early 80's. the later edition of the allison one went into production in 2001 and has a cherry hardwood cabinet. both are incredible products and compete with most anything. |
the one can be used against any flat wall...the three is for corners only. |
Ah, maybe that's the ticket then....I just remember the model I heard being in the corners, and liking what I heard. Remember, this was the late 70's.... |
As has been said, I think you no doubt have a pair of original vintage Ones and mistakenly consulted the BB value of the 'reissues', which were -- general design principles and inpiration aside -- completely different speakers made by a different company that bought the Allison name, and which retailed for several times more. (Jaybo would be the expert in that comparison. Both companies are defunct now.)
I've owned two pairs of the originals, the second of which I inherited from my father (actually, that set was comprised of a One on a flat wall combined with a Three in a corner -- an arrangement suggested for his particular room layout by none other than Roy Allison himself, a corner-loaded Three being the functional equivalent of a One on a wall). If I had the space and the inclination to collect vintage speakers, I'd have a set still. In audiophile terms they are at a disadvantage against modern speakers when it comes to all those speaker bugaboos that have largely been tamed since the 70's, like coloration/distortion/resonance/resolution. But in terms of sheer listening involvement they remain better than most, due to Allison's advanced design concepts for successfully addressing dispersion and room-interaction effects that he first identified and described (concerning woofer-loading and midrange cancellation, which are still largely ignored in speaker design to this day despite being universally recognized as empirically valid).
I would advise against replacing the tweeters unless you have to. Of course modern tweeters can go higher cleaner than the paper originals, but none have the idiosyncratic Allison 'split nipple' design which gave them an unusually broad power response designed to complement their 45-degree lateral mounting orientation, and Ones would not sound like Ones with conventional pistonic tweeters. Same for the dome midranges -- if you want modern sound you'll need modern speakers, but enjoy these for themselves. And make sure whoever reconditions your woofers has familiarity with the intended mass/compliance tuning of the acoustic-suspension originals, which used heavily (and heavy!) doped cones unlike typical modern light-coned woofers.
(And go very easy when fitting the still-ahead of their time, acoustically transparent one-piece frameless grilles, which become less flexable as they age and prone to cracking.) |
Thanks for the advise on re-conditioning. I plan to have the woofers redone by Bill LeGal at Millersound. He is familiar with these and I have had nothing but good results with all the work he has done for me in the past. Also appreciate the advise on replacing the tweeters, mids. I am likely to leave these as is and will only consider replacing with something non-original if they go out at some point in the future. Does anyone have an opinion about restoring or upgrading the crossover (worth replacing anything due to age? or leave alone until they go bad?) Will likely get into playing shape and decide if I will keep them or not, and if I keep them if I want to go to any additional effort to upgrade the crossovers etc. They will be compared to a pair of Alon model V that I currently have and will drive with an Aragon 4004 MkII power amp and a preamp to be named later (any suggestions?) which provides ample power for most speakers I could throw at it. Another post asked how much I paid for these and the answer is $300 - in hind sight a bit too much given what I have learned here but if I end up liking them (I do have a larger space that will allow me to set up as recommended here) will not be so bad. Anyway, thanks again for the information and recommendations. |
$300 is not bad at all if the condition is acceptable, and no way would I think that's the BB price of the 'reissues' (which should be much higher it seems to me), so even if the year-listing mistakenly confused the two, the price-listing probably didn't.
I do recall seeing somewhere that many owners have upgraded caps and wiring and such, even installing binding posts, but I have no personal experience with these mods, do a search (Web not Agon) and you might find something.
As for finding original replacement drivers, the same or very similar drivers were also used in some later, less costly models of the original Allison company that sold in larger quantities, such as the "CD_#" model line. (Mids and tweeters would probably be easier to locate, since most of the woofers used in these smaller model were less than 10".) As I recall there was actually a second ownership of the original company, consecutive with Roy Allison's ownership, that continued to use the same in-house drivers for those models that featured them. Then that company eventually went defunct, and later the 'reissue' company or whatever you want to call it was started by yet a third ownership, but those speakers shared no parts with the originals and used conventional OEM drivers. The original firm also came out with a fancier, 'new and improved' successor model to the Ones, that expanded on the same core design principles, called the IC-20 ("IC" stood for Image Control). |
76-79 sell and buy more modern speakers or keep and use in a garage |
The party's always better in the garage dude. Either Vernneal has never heard a correctly functioning pair of Allison:Ones, or he has no sense of history. Might as well use that Klipschorn for a doghouse while you're at it... |
I agree with Zaikesman. I owned Allison Ones 1976-1991 and studpidly, idiotically literally threw them away when I bought Wilson Watt Puppies, at the same time I threw away my LPs. Double Dumb. I didn't throw away my Allison Three's however and they still work perfectly, although the grilles are gone. I had the drivers re-foamed. In 2008 I bought Allison Fours (2001 models)and they are superb. The Allisons may not be modern, but they work better against walls trhan most other speakers. Enjoy the Ones, they are superb speakers! |
Friend of mine has a pair of the original Ones, now in need of woofer replacement. Served as his main speakers for a long time till he bought my Thiel CS3s, very good speakers for enjoying music. Definitely place them on a long wall if you can, that is their intended placement. Glad to hear Bill at Millersound can fix this speaker, I'll get my friend in touch with him. |
They sure won't end up in my garage - will go to the effort (and expense) of new surrounds and see (hear) how I like them compared to my pair of Alon V. I have had other vintage speakers that appealed to me in the past that, while I would not necessarily say they sounded better than very good modern speakers, I would not call them deficient either - just different. I had a pair of Allison: Nine that I liked very much but could not get used to the ultra modern looks and they had broken grill covers that I could not come up with a good solution the repair and the cosmetics make some difference to me. If I end up liking the Alon V better I will sell and move on, but due to weight and size will have to get a local buyer as I will not want to ship (though the same would apply to the Alon pair - if they get put in the "for sale" pile, they also are way too big and heavy for me to want to ship) Again, I appreciate everyone's comments on the subject - even the ones imply that I have made a mistake in purchasing them - we've probably all done this before! Thanks again. |
Have a pair of Allison Ones, is original owners manual still available? |
ngarberich...go to classicspeakerpages.net |
I still own a pair of these speakers, purchased around 1980
and cost about $700.
Hope this is still helpful. |
